China has had a run of improving their forces and infrastructure on their side of the India-China border. India is finally responding:
The Indian Army wants $3.5 billion in order to create three more brigades (two infantry and one armored) to defend the Chinese border. Actually, this new force is in addition to the new mountain corps (of 80,000 troops) nearing approval (at a cost of $11.5 billion). The mountain corps is to be complete in four years. The three proposed brigades would be ready in 4-5 years. By the end of the decade India will have spent nearly five billion dollars on new roads, rail lines and air fields near the 4,057 kilometer long Chinese border.
As China's power grows, they have a tendency to "discover" border disputes and even notice that some of them are a "core Interest" of China.
India can see how China treats rivals over claims in the South China Sea and East China Sea. It would be better to keep the Chinese from getting confident enough to be too expansive in their claims against India.
